This is a book of the year.

Gordon, Sarah and son Rory are a happy family, living in an idyllic beachside community until one day when Rory disappears while playing out on the beach.

Gordon and Sarah’s lives are changed forever, as time passes the leads dry up and hope fades - but the story’s not over yet…

I went into this completely blind. I loved Liam McIlvanney’s previous books The Quaker and The Heretic so this was a must read ASAP for me and it exceeded my expectations.
It’s bleak, empathetic, emotionally-involving and absolutely compelling.

I love that this genre can constantly throw up surprises, the ‘every-parents’-worst-nightmare missing child’ premise has been done so many times and The Good Father brings something fresh, original and frankly amazing.

Read it as soon as you can!

Thanks to Netgalley and Bonnier Books UK / Zaffre

This is the first thriller I have read for a number of weeks and it was a great one to get stuck into. The story is about a married couple, who are leading a normal and happy life with their son. They live in a nice and safe area and everything is going swimmingly until it's not. Their son was out walking the dog until it is only the dog that comes back but where did he vanish too? When they get the police involved everything starts to fall apart, have lies been told and is the answer much more closer to home than they think? will they ever get their son back alive? It was a slow burner but it was in a good way as you kind of get to peel the layers away to begin with, a bit of back story and intrigue and then it builds up in to a tense, gritty and suspenseful read. An author to watch out for. This was a brilliant read with a superb ending. I did not want it to end.

This feels like two books welded into one - and two damned fine books at that. It begins with every parent's worst nightmare: Gordon and Sarah Rutherford's seven year old son goes missing from the beach outside their Ayrshire house. There are no traces, no clues and time passes.

The world moves on but it's never the same for Gordon and Sarah. They find out who their true friends are, the ones who support rather than avoid. But years later they still have no idea what happened to Rory.

The twist is unexpected and stunning. This leads to the second half of the novel where Gordon faces situations and nightmares he never expected. But just how far will he go to find the truth.

The Good Father is excellently written with a great sense of place and a small but well developed cast of characters. It raises many questions and explores the grey areas of life where morality means nothing.

It is a seemingly ordinary August day that fractures the lives of Gordon and Sarah Rutherford. Late summer on the west coast of Scotland; their seven-year-old Rory enjoying the beach outside the family home with their dog Bonnie. Then Bonnie comes home alone. Gordon and Sarah wander the beach. No sign of Rory. The police are called. Questions. More extensive searches. More questions. Hours pass. Days. Months.

Award-winning novelist Liam McIlvanney, a professor at the University of Otago, may be a self-confessed ‘slow motion crime writer’ who doesn’t produce the book-a-year of many peers, but The Good Father demonstrates once more why his tales are always well worth the wait. What could be worse than your child disappearing? A seemingly ordinary day, something Rory had often done, playing near the house with their dog. A safe community in their small town, he’d always returned home. Until he didn’t. Guilt. Fear. Whispers and gossip. How do your neighbours see you now; how do you see yourselves?

McIlvanney takes parental fears and delivers gut-punch storytelling; he is a great writer alongside being a great storyteller. The sentences sing, as Gordon and Sarah’s happy lives are eroded away day by day. It’s the hope that kills. What could be worse than your child disappearing? The Good Father is a quietly terrifying tale that upturns expectations without pyrotechnics, and from an author who’s already collected major writing awards in both hemispheres, may somehow be his best work yet.

[This review was first written for Good Reading magazine in Australia]

Having previously enjoyed Liam McIlvanney’s last two books, The Quaker and The Heretic, I was interested to know how this one would compare. Suffice to say it’s on a different level, an absolute roller coaster of a novel.
It starts poignantly - Gordon & Sarah Rutherford, who have an enviable life style with a house on the beach in a secure neighborhood, find their world shattered when their seven year old son Rory disappears.
As time goes on hope gives way to despair and distrust then, when the truth begins to emerge, they find their lives turned upside down for different reasons.
It’s enthralling, believable and so clever, asking the question - What lengths would a parent go to in order to protect their child?

It has to be a contender for the CWA Gold Dagger award - Outstanding

Many thanks to NetGalley & Bonnier Books UK for an ARC